Giants

Giants are a race of sentient humanoids that live in the extreme north of Westeros.

Giants are about ten to twelve feet in height. They are capable of great feats of strength such as wrenching the bars of an iron gate apart. They are covered by a shaggy pelt of fur that is thicker below their waists than above. The fur of older giants becomes grey and streaked with white. Their heads are thrust forward from their shoulder blades. The have squashed-in faces with square teeth and tiny eyes amidst folds of horny flesh. Their eyesight is poor and they snuffle constantly, smelling as much as they see.

They have sloped chests, and their lower torsos are about half again as wide as their upper torsos. Their arms hang lower than a man's, while their legs are shorter than their arms, ending in splayed and horny feet that need no shoes even in the coldest weather. The female giants look similar to the male.

Giants do not use much technology. They wield huge clubs that are often no more than logs, though some tie boulders to the end to make crude mauls. They ride mammoths as steeds. They speak the Old Tongue of the First Men. Songs of the wildlings tell that giants were at one time more plentiful, but they were hunted by men and driven from their stone halls. By the time Mance Rayder became King-Beyond-the-Wall, there were only several hundred remaining. Giants do not have kings, but Mag the Mighty was considered their greatest warrior at that time.

Some wildlings believe that particularly large men in the north have giant blood in them, but there have been no recorded incidents of crossbreeding.